The French in Africa

The French Congo began in 1880 and was formalised in 1882, when it consisted of present–day Congo and the Central African Republic. Gabon was added in 1891, and left in 1906.

The colony was renamed Middle Congo in 1903, and in 1910 it was reunited with Gabon as French Equatorial Africa – which also included Chad and Cameroon. This was an attempt to emulate the relative success of French West Africa – which consisted of present–day Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger.

Several of these countries were known at the time by different names:

Now	Then
Mali	French Sudan
Guinea	French Guinea
Burkina Faso	Upper Volta
Benin	Dahomey

France first gained control of the tiny island of Gorée (off Dakar), which had long been used as a base for the Atlantic slave trade, in 1677. In 1848, following the abolition of slavery in France and its empire, the so-called Four Communes of Senegal (two of which were Dakar and Goree) became part of France and were granted the right to representation in the French parliament. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the French progressively invaded and took control of the local kingdoms, uniting them under the colony of Senegal. In 1895 a governor-general was appointed, and French West Africa formally came into being. Its capital was Dakar (now the capital of Senegal). The federation ceased to exist after a referendum in September 1958, and full independence followed in 1960.

Algeria was part of the French Republic from 1848 until independence in 1962. Present–day Djibouti was a French colony from 1896 to 1946, and an overseas territory of France from 1946 until 1977, when it was granted independence following a third referendum (the first two, in 1960 and 1967, having resulted in it remaining part of France).

Madagascar was a French colony from 1897 until 1960. Most of Morocco was a French protectorate from 1912 until 1956 (Spain retained a protectorate over the coastal areas around the Straits of Gibraltar, and the Western Sahara as a colony).

Tunisia was officially made a French protectorate in 1881, after it was invaded by France on the pretext of a Tunisian incursion into Algeria. It gained independence in 1956.